It's a game of inches and clichés

Updated 8:55 am, Sunday, February 5, 2012

If you're not a football fan but want to discuss the game with friends, you've come to the right place.

Thanks to a bounty of tiresome gibberish from SportsCliché.com, I can help you fake it during the biggest game of the year. Read on and learn.

At kickoff, you start out saying stuff such as “You can throw the playbook out the window!” and “This is why we play the game,” and “It's all come down to this.” It's vague and vapid, but you'll sound like a sportscaster.

As the game progresses, you can mix in these tired and true nuggets of football knowledge:

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This game will be won in the trenches. The team with the least turnovers will win, and the team that can capitalize on turnovers will win. Committing turnovers is costly. Not converting turnovers is costly. And don't forget that “trench” thing, either.

The goal is to play with a short field, but also launch sustained drives that grind it out. Having a quick strike, air-raid offense can't hurt, unless they're trying to chew up the clock, in which case they want to play smart, not dumb. It's a game of field position. Bad field position will be costly.

The Giants/Pats need to play Giants/Pats football.

Passes need to be accurate, catchable and delivered on time. Receivers have to be sure-handed, run good routes, and catch the ball in traffic. And, for goodness sake, remember the YAC, or “yards after catch.” Not having enough YAC could be costly.

Receivers need to stay in bounds. Unless, of course, they need to go out of bounds. Not staying in bounds — or staying in bounds, for that matter — will be costly.

The game will be won by the team that executes in the red zone. You can't come out of the red zone empty-handed. It's all about red zone efficiency. A team can salvage a red zone possession by getting three points, but there are times when settling for three is bad. Or it can be good. Either way, assume that it will be costly.

The game will be won on defense. Defenders need to dig in. The defense can bend, but it can't break. They need to be quick off the ball, but will also need to play a wait-and-see game. They must swarm and attack and fly at the ball, but they can't over-commit. Overcommitting = costly.

Defenders must master all forms of the tackle — game-saving, shoe-string, punishing, bone-jarring, clothesline and slobber-knocking. Missed tackles will be costly.

The Patriots' D line is made up of blue-collar guys who bring their lunch pails to work. They will be licking their chops. The Giants' defensive line brings the pain and the intensity. They will be teeing off on Manning. Sometimes, the teams will switch it up so that Giants are teeing off and Patriots are chop-licking.

New England linemen need to open up holes for the running game, but it needs to plug holes, too. The Giants line is great at protection, but has suffered breakdowns at crucial moments. All of that stuff is costly.

Special teams will be a difference-maker. Bad kicking will come back to haunt a team, as will leaky kick coverage. Punts cannot be shanked, muffed or bobbled. Field goals should be true, chip-shots or on the money. Kicking mistakes come with a price. And that price is ... any guesses? Yes. Costly.

Ultimately, it's all about which team wants it more. The winner is the team that executes, unless the ball bounces their way. The big play will determine the outcome, but the devil is in the details. Winning is beautiful, but winning ugly is OK, too.

Roy Bragg's column appears Thursdays and Sundays. Email him at rbragg@express-news.net and follow @roybragg on Twitter. He blogs at http://blog.mysanantonio. com/atlarge.